Saturday, 9 April 2011

Nesting Red-whiskered Bulbuls---nest building

My neighbours----a pair of Red-whiskered Bulbuls, are nesting again. In contrast to the swallows, which use the same nest every year, the Red-whiskered Bulbuls build new nests every year in a different location. This year is no exception. Luckily for me, this year the nest is located near my window. It gave me a great pleasure to witness the team work of the birds. When I realized what was going on, the nest was almost completed.

What seemed to be a perfect nest to me apparently was not good enough for the birds. It took them another two days to perfect the job, which gave me the chance to observe them. The female was the dominant one in nest constructing.

She came in and out bringing back roots

(one of their favourite nesting building materials)

of different shapes and length.

I guess because it is the female who will spend two weeks incubating the eggs, she has to make sure that the nest is comfortable.

Everything she put in the nest had to be comfort tested several times to ensure that the nest was cozy in every angle,

before leaving for another trip.

The male, on the other hand, was by no means a lazy partner. His job was a “bodyguard”. He not only accompanied the female on each trip back and forth from the nest but was also a “look-out”. While the female was working inside the nest, the male either sat on a high-point watching (the nest is at the bottom right of the picture),

or just stood by the nest,

usually singing loudly( the female is inside the nest---see the orange colour on the right hand side of the male).

It sounded like he was reassuring the female that everything was fine and she can concentrate on her work. Since the completion, the female has been spending most of her time in the nest, with occasional breaks.

The male meanwhile is not far away, sometimes I can hear him singing in the garden. Hopefully, we shall see some chicks in about two weeks time.

5 comments:

That is a great series of shots that really tells the story. What a unique and beautiful bird. You really have them there. "The female was the dominant one in nest constructing." Oh I can relate to that statement!